Marvel Get Their Laywers Out Over TechCrunch Iron Man Screening

There’s some legal shiz going on over at TechCrunch.com! Yesterday the site wrote the following:

CrunchGear and TechCrunch are hosting a special event tomorrow, April 30 (Wednesday) in San Francisco – a special screening of the movie Iron Man, two days before the official May 2 release.

We’ve rented out the largest theater we could find in the area – The AMC Metreon in San Francisco, which will hold 600 people. Everyone is welcome to attend, and the movie starts at 7:15 pm (you can arrive as early as 6:30).

That’s cool right? Well not according to Marvel and their legal team:

Marvel has sent us a cease and desist letter demanding that we cancel the Iron Man event tomorrow at the AMC Metreon in San Francisco. We are not canceling the event yet – stay tuned as our lawyers work this out.

Just to be clear, we paid the full ticket price for every seat and are fully authorized to do this. This is unbelievable and stupid in so many ways, and goes right to the top of the list of moronic legal moves against us. And he even ends the note with a “please don’t print” message.

Update: Just spoke to Althoff. He’s serious. And threatening lots of further action. He mentioned “public safety.”

Update 2: Just for the record, we began the whole process by calling the group sales phone number on the official Iron Man movie site, and worked directly with Paramount on the screening.

Update 3: As of right now, AMC is telling Marvel where to stick it, and the show is still on. More in the morning.

I can see where Marvel are coming from, I mean the site is called TechCrunch, there are lots of tech savvy people who will be going to the screening. Hollywood fears technology, because technology means that someone from the other side of the world can see a movie within hours of it being released. The last thing Marvel wants are 600 bootleg versions of Iron Man appearing online for thousands of people to watch days before the movie is actually released. I am pretty sure Marvel would have no problem at all if The Priests and Nuns Association were holding the same event.

Another reason Marvel may be concerned is down to the fact that TechCrunch gets well over 1 million visitors a month. TechCrunch are basically inviting thousands of people to an event that can only hold 600. If there are 300 people who get turned away it will obviously cause chaos, protests, carnage and death.

There could be other reasons, and I am sure there are. Paramount did not have a problem with it, however Marvel do. I am sure we will find out the outcome of all of this soon.